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Lord of the Rings Online Correspondent - Moving into the Mines
MMORPG.com Lord of the Rings Online Correspondent Matt McLean files this report on the upcoming expansion for the game, the Mines of Moria and discusses whether or not the new addition will be worth the box price.
Ever since its release nearly 16 months ago, The Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) has been one of the best MMORPGs on the market. It combines fluid gameplay with realistic graphics in one of the most recognizable fantasy atmospheres of all time. Their first “volume”, The Shadows of Angmar, allowed players to explore Eriador in all of its grandeur and frightening splendor. And now, coming this fall, Volume II of the story unfolds as the retail expansion, The Mines of Moria, will be released.
The developers at Turbine Studios, the group behind LotRO, know that without its players, there is no game. So periodically throughout the life of the game so far, the player-base has been given what the developers called “epic book” releases. These releases are fairly large in nature, and usually occur every few months. They have almost always added new areas of the map to explore, and allow the developers to introduce new characters, weapons, gear, and quests. It’s also a great way to make improvements within the game, like the ability to scale the UI, adding in and changing the existing graphic content and so on.
These epic book updates are free, and Turbine has said they will always be free. But the expansion coming this fall is going to be LotRO’s first retail expansion…meaning you will need to plunk down some additional cash in order to explore this new area and take advantage of all the new content.
Rryst, of “The Chasers” (one of the kinships within LOTRO) told me what he was looking forward to the most.
“Seeing Moria itself,” he said, “Who doesn't want to experience the 'dungeon' that inspired all others first-hand? The place Gandalf himself feared to tread. Turbine has thus far done a fantastic job on its play-spaces, the underground ones especially, and I'm very much looking forward to witnessing Moria. The thought of delving into its history, and future, through game-play is also very exciting. Some forward movement in the timeline is also very welcome. The Epic Books have done an adequate job in maintaining some momentum, but having the fellowship stuck in Rivendell for so long has grown wearisome. This push toward more content we're familiar with from the books is very welcome.”
Khazad-dûm is what the dwarves call Moria, and as Rryst says, it is the basis for many of the “dungeon crawls” of the past. Itself, it is a very large area of the map. It contains many large halls, caverns, chambers, mines and tunnels, and it will be full of Sauron’s minions to be sure. One thing that many players are looking forward to is fighting the Nameless of the Deep; the Balrog of Khazad-dûm. Many people’s favorite moment of the movie “The Fellowship of the Ring” was Gandalf’s stand against the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. You will get to see this bridge for yourself, as well as battle this mighty foe and try and bring him down yourself!
Another great character of Middle-earth lore that will be introduced is the ethereal Galadriel. Galadriel is an elf who was the possessor of one of the three rings of power. You will have the chance to aid Galadriel with this new expansion. Speaking of fellowships, another cool aspect being introduced with the Mines of Moria expansion is the ability to complete instances with 3, 5, 12 or 24 players. This gives you much more flexibility when it comes to your grouping in-game.
Aside from a massive new area of the game that will be opened up, there are many other changes which makes this release deeper and more detailed than any of the other epic book releases. There will be two new characters classes unveiled: the Rune-keeper (the game’s first true casting/magician/wizard class, differing slightly from the Loremaster) and the Warden (a sort of hybrid hunter-captain who would be more elusive than tank-like). These two new classes are the first to be introduced into the game since release, joining the other seven classes already available to the player-base.
As many players of LOTRO know, each epic book release has contained several quests which allow you to participate in the fellowship’s task of destroying the One Ring. With Mines of Moria, you will be able to experience the next volume in this epic journey, with six new books to work through as the Fellowship prepares to leave Rivendell and journey to Mordor. This represents a great step forward in the evolution of the story. Imagine if you will that we are over 16 months into the game itself and the Fellowship hasn’t even left Rivendell yet!
In the most recent epic book release, Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion, the Fellowship is gathering in Rivendell in preparation for their departure. Turbine has thought of a great way to make sure they move forward in the timeline of the story without leaving behind those new players who join the story from this point going forward. They are going to alter the quests just slightly to include special “rooms” within Rivendell that contain the characters of the Fellowship in their pre-departure states, while having the actual characters in different places within Rivendell in preparation for their departure to Mordor. It’s a great solution to the problem of having a linear game that must evolve without leaving newer players behind. Player immersion is a big concern to the developers at Turbine and with this worked out, you can rest assured that as you progress throughout the story, the characters you know and love will be right where they are supposed to be.
Another thing you can expect with the release is the increase of the level cap from 50 to 60. This is welcome news for the large group of players who have been a bit stagnated with their level 50 character(s). If you aren’t into PvMP play (Player vs. Monster Player, LOTRO’s version of PvP in-game), then once you get to 50, you only have a few options you can explore (although most are really rewarding). You can level up your reputation with the various groups within the game, gaining access to items that others with lower reputation can’t get. You can also work on crafting, which is a great way to explore your creative side. There are literally hundreds of recipes that grant you the ability to make some very cool weapons and gear. And of course, there are the numerous traits you can level up by completing the accomplishments associated with them. The trait system allows you to increase your stats without having to actually gain in-game XP. It’s a nice benefit for those players who reach the level cap and feel like there’s nothing left to accomplish. And of course, with the release of Moria, even those level grinders will have something to keep them busy for a few weeks.
Speaking of gear, another great part of the Mines of Moria expansion will be the legendary weapons and gear you can craft. These legendary items will level up as you do, and you can level up the traits and runic legacies of the item, allowing you to wield something as legendary as Bilbo’s sword Sting or Gandalf’s Glamdring.
Jaguire, another player with The Chasers, says, “I'm looking forward to the different combination that weapons and traits will now give you. This will, in a way, make it more of a personal experience. Up to now, every one basically had the same setup; one champion was pretty much the same (as another). Now with weapon experience and runic add-ons plus different ways to set up your traits, this will hopefully broaden the horizon for character development. Hopefully they will bring certain sets of runes to give you different bonuses if put them in certain order.”
As you can see, there are many things which make the Mines of Moria expansion worth a lot more than just your standard epic book release. Do I think that players will be willing for fork over $29.99 for the Mines of Moria?
Allow me to quote Bayland of The Older Gamers. “In the story arc, it (Moria) is where the reader becomes hooked by the struggle of the characters. Gimli finds the tomb of Balin, Gandalf falls, the Balrog falls, Aragorn steps into the leader role, Frodo reveals hidden strength and Boromir shines briefly before he succumbs to the lure of the Ring. Moria represents the first true step for LOTRO towards actually participating in the war of the ring. It is the crucible that forges the Fellowship. I expect LOTRO to be forged by this release. My expectations for Moria are high and the fact that Turbine is dedicating an entire expansion seems like the perfect fit.”
If anything has been shown to be the case since LOTRO’s release last year, it’s that the player-base is one of the most loyal in the business. And Turbine has a wonderful grasp on what Tolkien envisioned as Middle-earth. I expect that this is just the first of several retail expansions to come for LOTRO, and I look forward to experiencing them all.
That was a really good article, it actually makes me want to try the game. Good job.
Great read
. I was starting to get a little bit worried with Turbine, its been almost two years and we are just getting away from the " shire " and we are finally moving closer to Rohan, helmsdeep, Gondor. I hope that there will be enough content in this expansion to keep us hooked until we move into the deeper parts of the LotRO story.
Two years?
Hä??
The game has started in April 2007!
And there will be one big retail expansion every year that will progress the story through to Mordor. Not including the 4 book updates per year.
What a cracking read,
LoTRo is a superb game, WoW might have millions of subscribers, but no game can touch LoTRo for content, lore and a good solid mature player-base.
I`m also look forward to playing this game for many years to come.
Plater
It's been online like 13 months if I remember right.
It sounds great, but I think they will have a few hiccups along the way. New classes will probably mean class inbalance that will irk some players and cause them to further tweak skills. No biggie. Also, they are trying something new (or at least that's what one article I read previously) to make the whole area underground so that may cause some graphics/gameplay issues.
Other than that I can't wait to try it out, I just hope I get the new book14 traits done before it releases :)
I can understand it must be this way, but the development of content is a frustratingly slow process.
I, personally, have a level 50 Hunter (Grandmaster Woodworker), 50 Burglar (GM Armsman) and a 45 Champion (GM Tailor). I can't get motivated to level my Champion to 50 and the other two character slots are "mules" since, due to the very limited storage in this game, two mules are needed for that purpose.
As noted I'm not interested in leveling my Champ, I've grown tired of raids, I can only take PvMP in small doses and I've stopped questing months ago, since there's no real purpose (zero XP and most of the quest rewards are useless). Once MoM hits, I'll do Books 12-15 on my Hunter and Burglar and turn in about a dozen quests that are on each of my 2 girls' quest logs awaiting turn in for the XP.
For a long time, I've spent most of my time in game farming. I have a ton of gold now -- but I've got everything money can buy in the game already though -- I figure the gold might come in handy when MoM hits -- in any case, farming and playing the AH continues to be profitable and enjoyable. I've also spent more time playing other great games in closed beta - one game was a bit frustrating especially since it was release as a closed beta product and 3 months after release it is still not release quality, but the other MMO, still in closed beta with expected release in the fall, is exceptional.
There's really no money in crafting so I've simply just crafted (or had crafted) the items I needed. The "Hype" about "hundreds of recipes" in this article is literally true, but it's really a hyped spin on LotRO crafting since having 5-6 skins and a different name for a tailored armor item with identical stats cuts down the actual variety of useful crafted items considerably. When you factor that in, along with the plethora of social clothing recipes like various arrow quivers, dozens of robes, etc., the actual useful variety of recipes in LotRO actually sucks. Here's why. Say you want to get (fill in the blank here - armor, weapon, jewelry) ,,, you have a very limited choice since there's very little (usually only one ) option.After crafting what I need for my characters, I've made a lot of gold selling certain recipes on the AH, mostly engraved beryl jewelery recipes and certain level 47 weapon recipes. I'm very much looking forward to MoM to see how the "hype" about actually being able craft custom armor and weapons that grow with the character works out ,,, if it does, LoTRO will finally break out of the "cookie cutter" zero character customization with every level 50 character of same class looking virtually identical in build/optimization.
MoM will add two new classes, yet I've seen nothing about MoM *ADDING CHARACTER SLOTS* in the character creation screen. If they are doing this, great -- it's a must, actually to raise the available characters per account from five to EIGHT.
I also wanted to comment on this article's discussion on how a bored level 50 can work on deeds and reputation.
It's certainly true that the vast majority of players with level 50 characters are nowhere near caught up with their deeds ,, in fact, Book 14 places everyone even further behind on deeds since they've added some really good ones. Most players have to get busy with that, since in LotRO, since the character equipment/customization is so severely limited, the real difference between the mediocre player and the great player are deeds.
But as far as reputation is concerned, I've maxed to Kindred @ many and hit the proper reputation tier as necessary, but putting the associated benefits of raising reputation in a certain area aside (i.e., by associated benefits I refer to things like reaching friend tier in Breeland to purchase the Virtue Trait Scroll for Man Race), I find that virtually all the reputation rewards you can purchase once you achieve the right tier from the reputation vendor are nowhere near as good as other items available in the game. So I don't have any of that stuff, except certain crafting recipes and decoration items for the kinship house. I did spend 5+ gold each, then traded my old horses and got the Evendim/Wardens Reputation Horse for my Hunter and the Angmar/Council of the North Reputation Horse for my Burglar -- more for the coolness of them, because actually, having owned both for quite some time now, I've noticed no improvements in preventing knockdowns versus that provided by the more plebian "normal" player purchased horses.
Looking forward to MoM!
Thank you for the great article Matt! I'm looking forward to MoM too! I love their plan of yearly expansions in the Fall. The amount of content we got for FREE during the last year is mind-boggling. They are great Devs and they must live on lattes and expressos at the Turbine headquarters.
Nice article .
Hope the Mines bring some more people into the game. As a new player I have to say it is very hard finding groups in certain areas of the game.
A lot of this problem can be eliminated, or greatly reduced depending on which server you choose (for example, Brandywine has the most players by far) and which kinship you join (the larger kinships have literaly hundreds and hundreds of players so it is very likely that you'll be able to find kin mates to form a fellowship with you to do something you all need done.
So Airspell, take what I've said here to heart and you'll reduce and likely eliminate singing the "I Can't Find a Group" Blues.
wow and xpack with a whole dungeon for 30 bucks, REVOLUTIONARY!! Truly is next gen and groundbreaking, no mmo in history has had so little content updated for a whole expansion. I like where they are taking this game, surely players will flood the gates!
LOTRO has doee a fairly good job of taking the game in a direction that many of the players wish to go.
they have an excelent fusion of the right graphics and story and for the most part content and I am looking foward to the expansion.
I do have some things on my improvement list though this I hope to see in the future.
DRUID class the two new classes dont really excite me ill probably give one or both a try but I was hoping warden was a plant and animal caster im not familiar enough with tolken lore but I think there is justification for such a class somewhere.
VOICEOVERS all the book quests should be full voice over and other quests should have more voice over where ever important especially the naz gul !
improvements to housing it was their first try and there is alot of room for improvements in the housing system like the too strict item locations and not much to do in the housing communities like public works projects or special crafting but im confident this is comming, for now my house is another bank. (wish there was ways to upgrade your house)
all the latest quests ive done including book 14 had gear that has been BELOW me for like 3-4 levels now so it ended up as vender loot VERY dissapointed at least offer something that we dont have ... special arrows or possibly a pet would have been better than that.
Id like to see some more origional spells and effects ive yet to see a force bubble like gandalf for instance .
more diverse alternate advancement they need more directions to occupy charactors other than pure quests like collections,,public works projects,, see once I finished the quests in icy bay it effectivly became empty and boring very quickly, it is also very noticable there is no sea life in the bay. right now they have that faction thing but its nothing more than massive mob kill grinding and ive yet to see anything that the factions offer that intrests me
BOATS! let me say this again B O A T S!!! turbine is very afraid of the water and there is a distinct lack of boat travel in game and this defiles the immersion they are trying to cultivate.
fishing despritly needs improvement its one of the few features I feel that they failed at its currently is a click,,,wait,,,click type of fishing that some players are very dissapointed with.
terrain interaction while the terrain looks awesome (especially when you see the mountains miles off) but in game the terrain is umm... not very dynamic there is no climbing and very little jumping and very little if any items to interact with making the world have a bit of a scenery feel I would like the ability to climb ladders and trees and vines ,, and have a better ability to jump on and over obsticles,,, and have some things in game to interact with that are not part of a specific quest like the well buckets.
my personal wish is more and better forrage items that you pick in the wilderness things you cannot get any other way for food or potions right now all the forrage items can be farmed i would like to see herbs and roots and other goods that modify or improve normal recipies oh and add coffee and teas for cooks! forraging should be where you get special eggs for instance how about a dragon egg omlet!
I loved your addition of clothing costumes it drasticly made the world much more diverse you got alot of bang for your buck on that addition, I would like to see some more diversity in charactor appearence and animation for instance why cant charactors crawl? or flip or tumble its kind of old school doing everything standing upright,, Id also like to see more mob interaction the knockback is nice but id like to see more interaction effects such as the grab and throw, the frontal sweep, the step on (that actually drops a player to the ground) gass attacks , thorn blasts and of cours fire and ice that singes or frosts.
actually the closest you would get to a druid in Middle Earth is a wood elf. and even then they arent specialized at just using an animal (in other words they are all hunters, guardians, loremasters with the ability to control (limited amount) of creatures).
as for MoM. i am glad i did not level to the cap yet (32 and going strong). i look forward (as i did with the BC) to reaching the cap just before the release.
Very nice article and I must say that brenths post was really good aswell! Pointing out alot of things that the game need to improve (and some of the are getting imrproved in MoM)!
Recreating Moria is an ambitous project but Im sure that Turbine will do a great job! When I started playing the game back when it launched my greatest motivation for playing was "When they release Moria I must have a lvl 50 character ready to go and explore it"
Now 1.5 years later I have 2 lvl 50s and cant wait to get them both inside the mines :)
Rohan next? :p
I really don't see anything that exciting
10 More levels? standard fare for any MMO
Legendary weapons that level with you ? Sounds good but will these be for raiders only
2 new classes ? with only 6 classes at release it was allways low on choices so adding 2 more isnt that surprising , but lets wait & see how much they get nerfed after a few week of release
Different traits? or more of the same
I would like to hear more info on things like
More Character slots ?
More Bank space " MUCH MUCH MORE"
More Bag space " Tailor made bags ?"
Shared Bank slots
Better Mail system
Better Auction House system
Revamp Housing ' currently I cant buy a house in the same instance as my friends because there are none for sale & I bet many are abandoned by players that no longer play
Better Mounts, how about something apart from a horse.. or Sadles that add stats like +5% horse speed increase or better yet just copy EQ2 mounts they have the best ones ..
Better UI , how about that ability to make your own notes on the map ? almost every aspect of the UI can be improved
So far this expansion is just "Ho Hum same o same o" I want to be excited I really do
Ow & for the love of all that is Middle Earth FIX pet pathing
and why does it say 6 classes? Ive read that alot.. there is 7 classes in LotrO.. (6 monster play classes thou :p)
and Lukain... we dont know all of the changes coming in MoM yet.. thoose things are just the really big ones... its not like they are going to make an announcemt saying " Big news: In our paid expansion the players will get more bank space!!!!".. Very little is known about the expansion, Im sure Turbine will start hyping it now when book 14 is out the door!
And I think you should read the gamespy article of what Legendary items are about and how they will work... think youve got the wrong picture of it...
You know what...you're right. There are seven character classes. :) I must've been thinking of something else when I typed that! I also forget about the Burglar class a lot because I don't see a ton of them running around where I play.
Other than that mistype, thanks for the positive feedback guys!
-Matt McLean
aka Galias
Have they said anything about the release date yet???
The Mines of Moria retail expansion with be available for $29.95 "this fall."
Read "this fall" as most likely the September-October timeframe. It won't be before mid-September and most likely release won't be later than mid to late October. While there's nothing official on the release date, I make this prediction because there are other games and expansions due out around the same time (i.e., Warhammer Online).
Two years?
Hä??
The game has started in April 2007!
I said almost two years. And it feels like its been longer than that. Do not get me wrong i enjoy the game a lot, it just seems that this took forever to finally get the story rolling.
I said almost two years. And it feels like its been longer than that. Do not get me wrong i enjoy the game a lot, it just seems that this took forever to finally get the story rolling.
Unfortunately, you haven't seen Turbine's list of milestones (long term) for LotRO.
What I will tell you is Turbine has the IP rights for the Lord of the Rings online game from Tolkien Enterprises until 2012 with options for longer (2017 as I recall). The plan is to release one "volume" (read that as one paid expansion) every year or so, with a series of free content updates ("Books") periodically during that year. Volume 1 has 14 Books. Volume 2 will have 8 Books.
So as you can see, Turbine does have a plan as they do have a "general" idea of what will come and when.
I seriously doubt you will happy with the "speed" in which Turbine gets to the Fourth Age but one thing you can be certain of -- LotRO will continue to provide more quality, true-to-the-lore content, more often and the overall experience, especially for Tolkien fans, will continue to impress, entertain and wow us for many years to come.
And they call it a mine...A MINE !!!! :)
I expect it to be more than a regular dungeon.
Ignorance at its finest. I already spoke with my money on what I think of LOTRO (cancled) but the x-pac they are offering is interesting and for the most part what players have been asking for on the forums for months now. Will I buy it? Nope. LOTRO is still going to be to casual for my taste but it will do well, regardless of what some numbnuts say about it.
There are only 4 classes in LOTRO
1.) melee
2.) melee with a little healing/buffing abilities
3.) melee with a little healing/debuffing abilities
4.) range/with melee abilities.
Anyone see a trend here? While I like the game world of LOTRO and IMHO the gameplay is good the classes offered on the other hand are just boring.
Uh does the poster above suffer frome some really bad kind of brain damage?
A lore master is mele? a hunter does much more dmg ranged minstrel runs away from mele.
Sure when you solo you end up in close combat but thats what happens with every game the mele mobs arn't goign to stay at range just so you cna range fight em are they?
Instead of making stupid posts go back to playing whateve game you like. Stupid hater cunt.
I think Lotro did a good job of giving each class its own flavor. Honestly you can generalize classes in every game to date like that, Turbine basically eliminated alot of the redundancy seen in many other games by having less classes but giving them more hybrid capabilities.
New Moria site with new info
http://www.lotro.com/moria
oh and the legendary weapons will be for everyone here is even more info on them:
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/the-lord-of-the-rings-online-mines-of-moria/887238p1.html
lord of the rings online is a game a i play when i fancy a break from wow . its a great pve experiance but the pvp side is slightly lacking and does need to improve a bit . i m hoping that maybe moria will offer more insentive for players and monster players to explore the pvp side og the game . if that improves i ll proberbly play on a bi monthly basis rahter than just the odd month i get bored with warcraft and fancy having a wonder around middle earth for a change of scenary .
I said almost two years. And it feels like its been longer than that. Do not get me wrong i enjoy the game a lot, it just seems that this took forever to finally get the story rolling.
Unfortunately, you haven't seen Turbine's list of milestones (long term) for LotRO.
What I will tell you is Turbine has the IP rights for the Lord of the Rings online game from Tolkien Enterprises until 2012 with options for longer (2017 as I recall). The plan is to release one "volume" (read that as one paid expansion) every year or so, with a series of free content updates ("Books") periodically during that year. Volume 1 has 14 Books. Volume 2 will have 8 Books.
So as you can see, Turbine does have a plan as they do have a "general" idea of what will come and when.
I seriously doubt you will happy with the "speed" in which Turbine gets to the Fourth Age but one thing you can be certain of -- LotRO will continue to provide more quality, true-to-the-lore content, more often and the overall experience, especially for Tolkien fans, will continue to impress, entertain and wow us for many years to come.
What was the point of your post? You obviously just pulled some random information out of you're ass to prove what? I read up on the game and I take note on what Turbine will be doing in the near future and how long they will have the rights to LotRO.
Were you trying to prove something? I play the game and i know they release books to further push the storyline. Only thing i asked was, why did it take so long to get the story rolling?
I loved the game. I will probably go back to it especially as more information about this expansion comes underway. It's a great solid game. And has the best online community since FFXI imo.
Unfortunately, you haven't seen Turbine's list of milestones (long term) for LotRO.
What I will tell you is Turbine has the IP rights for the Lord of the Rings online game from Tolkien Enterprises until 2012 with options for longer (2017 as I recall). The plan is to release one "volume" (read that as one paid expansion) every year or so, with a series of free content updates ("Books") periodically during that year. Volume 1 has 14 Books. Volume 2 will have 8 Books.
So as you can see, Turbine does have a plan as they do have a "general" idea of what will come and when.
I seriously doubt you will happy with the "speed" in which Turbine gets to the Fourth Age but one thing you can be certain of -- LotRO will continue to provide more quality, true-to-the-lore content, more often and the overall experience, especially for Tolkien fans, will continue to impress, entertain and wow us for many years to come.
What was the point of your post? You obviously just pulled some random information out of you're ass to prove what? I read up on the game and I take note on what Turbine will be doing in the near future and how long they will have the rights to LotRO.
Were you trying to prove something? I play the game and i know they release books to further push the storyline. Only thing i asked was, why did it take so long to get the story rolling?
The story has been rolling. The game is about the players, not just about the fellowship.